1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an air conditioner, and more particularly, to a combined type air conditioner. Although the present invention is suitable for a wide scope of applications, it is particularly suitable for combining an indoor unit and an outdoor unit mutually.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
Generally, an air conditioner, which includes a compressor and a heat exchanger to make a refrigerant flow therein, cools down or heats an indoor space such as a living room, a restaurant, a library, an office and the like. And, air conditioners can be classified into a separate type and a combined type.
The separate type air conditioner consists of an indoor unit having a heat exchanger for cooling or heating an indoor space, an outdoor unit having a built-in heat exchanger for heat exchange with an outdoor air, and a refrigerant pipe connecting the indoor unit and the outdoor unit together.
The indoor and outdoor units of the separate type air conditioner are separately installed at indoor and outdoor spaces, respectively.
Meanwhile, the combined type air conditioner, which includes indoor and outdoor units built in one body together, is directly installed on a hole of a house wall or is hung on a window.
An air conditioner according to a related art is explained with reference to FIGS. 1 to 3 as follows.
The air conditioner according to the related art shown in FIGS. 1 to 3 is the combined type air conditioner having an indoor unit for a heat exchange with an indoor air and an outdoor unit for a heat exchange with an outdoor air, in which the indoor and outdoor units are built in one body.
Referring to FIGS. 1 to 3, the air conditioner consists of a base panel 2 forming a bottom, a frame 4 provided over the base panel 2, an air guide 6 partitioning the base panel 2 and the frame 4 into an indoor part ‘I’ and an outdoor part ‘O’, a front panel 9 provided to a front side of the cabinet 4 toward an indoor space to configure a front part of the combined type air conditioner, and a compressor 12 changing a low-temperature low-pressure gaseous refrigerant into a high-temperature high-pressure refrigerant.
In the outdoor part ‘O’, a condenser 14 radiating heat to air flowing within the outdoor part and an expansion valve (not shown in the drawing) expanding the refrigerant condensed by the condenser 14 are accommodated.
To the indoor part ‘I’ provided is an evaporator 16 that evaporates the refrigerant expanded in the expansion valve. In doing so, the refrigerant absorbs heat of the air flowing within the indoor part to evaporate into a gaseous phase.
Meanwhile, outdoor intake ports 5 are formed at lateral and upper sides of the outdoor part to suck the outdoor air. A backside of the outdoor part is open to blow the air to the outdoor space.
An indoor air intake port 10 is provided to a lower part of a front side of the front panel 9. And, an indoor air blowing port 11 is provided to an upper part of the front panel 9 to blow the air into the indoor space.
The air guide 6 consists of a vertical guide 7 provided vertical to a topside of the base panel 2, a horizontal guide 8 horizontally provided over the vertical guide 32 approximately to guide the air forcibly moved by an indoor fan 24, which will be explained later, to the indoor air blowing port 11, and a blowing guide 8a provided within the horizontal guide 8 to guide the air-conditioned air to the indoor air blowing port 11.
A bi-shaft motor 22 is provided to the air guide 6 of the combined type air conditioner. In this case, front and rear shafts 20a and 20b are projected from the bi-shaft motor 22 toward the indoor and outdoor parts, respectively.
The indoor fan 24 is connected to the front shaft 20a to forcibly circulate the indoor air to the evaporator 16. And, an orifice 26 accelerating a wind speed of air is provided to an intake side of the indoor fan 24.
To fix the orifice 26 to the vertical guide 7 with screws 7a, a plurality of first locking holes (not shown in the drawing) are formed at a front side of the vertical guide 7, while a plurality of second holes 26a confronting the first locking holes are formed at the orifices 26 to be locked by the screws 7a, respectively.
A propeller fan 28 is connected to the rear shaft 20b of the bi-shaft motor 20 to forcibly move the outdoor air toward the condenser 14. And, a shroud 30 forming an air passage is provided in rear of the propeller fan 28.
Meanwhile, the vertical guide 7 consists of a fan accommodating portion (not shown in the drawing) to accommodate the indoor fan 24 therein and a partitioning plate 7a extending from one side of the fan accommodating portion in a lateral direction to partition the combined type air conditioner into the indoor part ‘I’ and the outdoor part ‘O’ together with a backside of the fan accommodating part.
And, a control box 40 for the installation of various electric/electronic parts for controlling the related art combined type air conditioner is loaded in the horizontal guide 8.
In particular, a support panel 8b is provided to one side of the horizontal guide 8 to support a bottom of the control box 40 and a plurality of first screw holes 8c are formed at one side edge of the horizontal guide 8 to fix the control box 40 with screws 41 and 42.
And, a plurality of second screw holes 40a and 40b are provided to one side of the control box 40 to confront a plurality of the first screw holes 8c, respectively.
An operation of the above-configured related art combined type air conditioner is explained as follows.
First of all, once the combined type air conditioner is actuated, the refrigerant is circulated by the driven compressor 12 via the condenser 14, the expansion mechanism (not shown in the drawing) and the evaporator 16. And, the driven bi-shaft motor 20 rotates the indoor fan 24 and the propeller fan 28 to suck the indoor air and the outdoor air into the indoor part and the outdoor part, respectively.
In particular, the indoor air in front of the front panel 9 passes through the indoor air intake port 10 by the rotation of the indoor fan 24 and is then cooled down via the evaporator 16.
A flowing direction of the air cooled down by the evaporator 16 is diverted along the orifice 26, the vertical guide 7 and the horizontal guide 8 toward the indoor air blowing port 11 provided to the front panel 9 and is then blown to a front side of the front panel 9 via the indoor air blowing port 11.
Meanwhile, the air in the outdoor space is sucked into the outdoor intake ports 5 by the rotation of the propeller fan 28, passes through the shroud 30, passes through the condenser 14 to take heat from the refrigerant flowing within the condenser 14, and is then blown out to the outdoor space.
However, the related art air conditioner has the following problems or disadvantages.
First of all, in the related art air conditioner, since the air guide is configured with many parts including the vertical guide, the horizontal guide, the blowing guide and the like, its configuration is complicated to have difficulty in assembly.
Secondly, in the related art air conditioner, the orifice is assembled using the locking members such as the screws and the like, thereby having difficulty in assembly.
Thirdly, since the interior of the related art air conditioner is partitioned by the vertical guide only, material consumption for manufacturing the vertical guide is increased and the configuration of the vertical guide is complicated.
Fourthly, in the related art air conditioner, the control box, which is fixed to one side of the horizontal guide by a plurality of the screws, needs a number of the screws to have difficulty in assembly. Finally, in the related art air conditioner, since the control box is unstably installed at one side of the horizontal guide, the electric/electronic parts within the control box are short-circuited or malfunction by the vibration generated from the driven air conditioner.